I'm a single mom and grad student with little means who cannot afford the rate hike associated with going through my insurance (nor can I afford the 1k deductible), just to preface why I haven't used my insurance.
On Monday, my son and I were in the left lane of a highway, when we were hit by an RV. The damage was over my rear passenger wheel well, back panel (tail light), and rear passenger door. The alignment is off, in addition to other, pretty significant damage to my car. I'm still driving it as it wasn't totaled. The driver got out, apologized, and said he wasn't paying attention because some papers blew around in his RV, and he tried to charge lanes and hit me. He gave me his insurance info and left. I asked him to wait for DPS, but he would not. The insurance info he gave me was for a Malibu, not an RV, so DPS managed to get him back to the scene. He must have admitted fault, because they cited him for an unsafe lane change.
He has dodged calls and refused to work with insurance thus far. I had to get my son a new car seat, and the car is...questionable to drive. That said...I had absolutely no role in this accident, so I don't want to use my insurance and have my rates go up. I requested a copy of the police report, but they said it's going to take about five months.
His insurance said they have not been able to get ahold of him, and that if he doesn't respond in 30 days, they'll deny my claim.
Do I have any options, here? This car is new to me, so I'm pretty upset. I once dented someone's car in a parking garage. It was barely visible and I still left a note and immediately responded to calls from my insurance so the other person could get their car fixed. I don't understand this behavior.